plan your menus...save time and money

Do you plan out your weekly menus?
Menu planning is probably the one thing I do that saves me the MOST time every week.
It's also going to save you money when you start using up all the food in the freezer and in the back of the cupboards.

Note - you must do this BEFORE you go to the shops to do your grocery shopping ;)

1. Go to your freezer and cupboards to see what food you have that you need to use, and make a list.

2. Write out a menu plan for a week (if you do weekly shopping) or longer, using recipes to use up that food.

3. Add any items that you need additionally to your weekly shopping list and then go shopping.
4. Stick the menu plan to your fridge and follow it.

Now you don't have to rack your brain every night wondering what to cook.

You have a PLAN.
Another tip that will save you lots of time is to cook extra food on the weekends. You can free it and then when you have a busy day it's easy to just defrost the meal and have a healthy supper on the table in minutes.

We went through a stage where we didn't buy any meat for two months while we finished everything in the freezer and started on the cupboards. You see, we all get into a habit of buying the same groceries every week without checking if we really need it.

If you're not already menu planning, I'd like to encourage you to at least start. Do so for at least a month and give it a good go.

And if you already do menu planning, then your challenge for this week is to only buy perishables and eat from your freezer and cupboards.

For more organizing tips, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com